Violet Oliver

Biography

Violet Oliver was born Violet Linda Geissinger, 1901 in Fresno, California. At the the age of seventeen she was chosen to be the "Trans Pacific Girl" and dedicated the Thomas H. Ince aviation field. She started modeling and entering beauty contests. In 1920 the California raisin growers named her the "prettiest girl in the state". Violet spent the next several years touring the country as "The Sunkist Girl" and her picture appeared on millions of boxes of raisins. During her travels she interviewed the President and danced with the Prince of Wales. She became one of the most photographed women in America. Violet made her film debut opposite Lige Connelly in the 1922 comedy High Power. She also appeared in the short film Casey Jones Jr. In the Fall of 1923 she joined Lemaire and Philip's vaudeville act. Violet was also an accomplished swimmer and diver. She married baseball pitcher Earl Whitehill in November of 1925. The couple had a daughter named Earlinda and moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Violet quit acting but she occasionally wrote articles about baseball for The Washington Herald. Sadly in 1954 Earl died at the age of fifty-five following an automobile accident. Violet passed away on March 22, 2003 at the age of 101.